What is Progressing Disability Services?

Progressing Disability Services (PDS) is a national process to reorganise children’s disability services. This process changes the way young people (aged 0-18 years) and their families access and receive health services. These changes have already happened in other parts of Ireland and are about to happen in Dublin.

At the moment, HSE Disability Teams, as well as other publicly-funded disability (also called voluntary bodies) provide services to children with disabilities living in North Dublin. These services will soon combine their staff to create new teams, so that children will have equal access to supports regardless of where they live or the nature of their disability.

Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People – Conference Report published

The HSE and its voluntary agency partners held a national conference Working Together to Support Children and Young People with Disabilities and their Families hosted by Mary Immaculate College, Limerick in December 2017. The purpose of the conference was to:

showcase innovative practice in children’s disability services in line with the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People Programme

promote partnership and collaborative working with families and other services in supporting children with disabilities to achieve best possible outcomes, and

Following on from the success of the conference, Mary Immaculate College has published a conference report in partnership with the HSE and its funded agencies as an invaluable ongoing resource for all those involved in the field of child disability.

The report records the 10 conference presentations, 11 breakout workshops including delegate feedback, poster abstracts from the event and some examples of current national and international research in this area.

Dublin North City and County School Age Disability Team (SADT)

Who are we

Our team caters for children who are 5 years to 13 years and 11 months of age and who present with complex needs arising from a disability.

The School Age Disability team aims to enhance each family's capacity to support their child's development and enable their active participation in community life.

What we do

We work together with families on developing shared goals for their child. The team supports children and families access supports and create links within their own community and school

All interventions are aimed at supporting families to help children in their home, school and community life, through an individualised plan developed between the team and the family.

Cover image for SADT Referral Intake Form The team is made up of: Occupational Therapy, Social Work, Speech and Language Therapy, Psychology, Physiotherapy and team coordinator. It is our aim to work with families as a dynamic inter-disciplinary team to specifically address the needs of the child and family.

As a team we may offer supports in a variety of formats depending on the needs and goals identified by the family.